Education beyond the classroom

By Michelle Davitt - www.mykidstime.com

Galway Advertiser, Thu, Apr 27, 2017

Education doesn’t stop when your child leaves school each day. Children are naturally curious and there are many interesting and fun ways we can help educate them beyond the classroom so they don’t even realise they are being educated.

Get them to help with preparing meals from a young age. Weighing, measuring and learning about how different ingredients work together is interesting and fun for children. Yes there may be a mess and dinner may be a little later coming to the table, but does that really matter? You are teaching your child a skill they will have forever.

Create a bit of kitchen chemistry. From homemade honeycomb to erupting volcanoes and homemade slime to creating a mini robot from batteries we have loads of fun projects and suggestions on www.mykidstime.com for kids and adults to test.

Spend a day learning more about your local town. Take a bus or river tour, visit historic buildings, go to the local museum or just walk around spotting plaques on buildings telling you what they once were or who lived there years ago.

Give your child a spot in the garden to cultivate or a large pot for the patio. Get them growing some flowers, fruit or vegetables that they enjoy eating or can gift to family and friends. They will learn more about where food comes from and will feel a real sense of pride in growing their own.

Get children to interview their grandparents. From remedies to places they have visited you will be surprised how much they learn. My daughter had to do a project on Tanzania and happened to mention it to her grandfather who told her he had once lived there and worked as an engineer on the airport runway. He was able to give her photos and stories to make her project more personal and interesting.

Embrace technology. We are always being told this generation spend too much time on their devices but it is about balance. By downloading the right apps, screen time can offer alternative learning opportunities to those within the classroom.

Get them involved in a sport or pastime they love. From learning to read music to acting on stage or learning hand eye coordination to teamwork, getting your child involved in after school activities they love has huge educational benefits, makes them happy and gives them a sense of achievement along with offering an escape.

Read to them and as they grow, get them to read to you. From snippets in the paper to books before bedtime fostering a love of reading is a real gift. Visit the library or local bookstore with your child and get them to pick books they are interested in. So long at the subject matter is age appropriate, it doesn’t matter whether they read comics or encyclopaedias, fact or fiction, getting them reading will increase their knowledge and confidence.

Finally listen to what interests them and help them to learn everything they can about that subject. For more tips and advice on education and parenting check out www.mykidstime.comEDUCATION